The critics of Houston expansion were wrong about the cause of the floods

Washington Post:
Harvey is a 1,000-year flood event

A new analysis determined the storm flooded a section of Southeast Texas that was equivalent in size to the state of New Jersey.
There is no way to engineer away the damage done by a 1000 year flood.  If the same amount of rain fell on Washington DC, the results would have been similar for the city and the region.   Houston required all new builds since the 1970's to be above the 100-year flood plain.  In some cases that was probably enough, but a 1000-year flood is not something drainage engineers plan for anywhere.

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